CHULA VISTA, Calif. – The family of 39-year-old May “Maya” Millete, who disappeared from her South Bay home three months ago, are restless for answers and worry police aren’t doing enough to move her case forward.
But while police have remained tight-lipped about the investigation, detectives are closely following leads in an attempt to locate Millete, Chula Vista Police Capt. Eric Thunberg said.
“This is not a cold case,” Thunberg said. “We have an investigator and a team of investigators that we call upon when necessary. That detective has been working this pretty much full-time since the get-go.”
Maricris and Richard Drouaillet, Maya’s sister and brother-in-law, called semi-retired lawyer and investigator Billy Little with the Cold Case Foundation two days after Maya went missing. The foundation is comprised of experts who volunteer their time to help law enforcement agencies solve certain cases.
Little said he has substantial information about the case, which could lead to an arrest.
He said he turned information over to police and that the department took the information but turned down his help.
“There are thousands of unsolved cases out there and I don’t know why those thousands are unsolved, but this one does not need to be unsolved” Little said. “This one can be solved.”
Thunberg said police don’t want to jeopardize a case if it ends up in court at some point. The department has consulted with local, state and federal agencies during the investigation, he said.
“We have a lot of people that have reached out to the department and said, ‘The department should do this and the department should do that, or you should do this,’” he said, “and I get that people want to help, and they think they know something or they want to provide direction, they want to provide input.
“I can tell you from someone who’s paying attention to the case: if there’s something for us to do, and that we can do, we’re doing it.”
Police served a search warrant at the home Maya shares with her husband, Larry, and their children about two months ago. The results of that search have not been shared publicly.
As of Monday, Thunberg said the case is not criminal and that there are no suspects.
“We still have a missing persons case; we don’t actually have a crime which is thankful, right, that leaves hope that May is found and found safely,” Thunberg said, “At this point, I don’t have any information that tells us otherwise, but we’ll continue to pull, like I said, we’ll unravel everything that we can to try to find her.”
